Coursera is one of the prestigious and leading e-learning platforms offering a wide array of learning programs.
It is one of the trusted platforms that provide opportunities to expand your career and helps you to explore interests in different career-relevant fields.
Coursera is growing exponentially and has over 113 million users. If you are willing to take courses from Coursera and looking for honest Coursera reviews, then here you go.
In this article, I have compiled all pertinent details of Coursera, including its features and pricing structure, and have also provided a list of some of the top courses offered by Coursera.
If you are in a bit of a hurry, then you can take a glance through the quick overview of Coursera provided below.
Coursera Review: In A Nutshell
| Courses | 7000+ |
| Features | Quality course content Graded assignments and quizzes 24/7 customer support Shareable and verified certificates, etc. |
| Pricing | Courses- $49 to $79 Coursera plus monthly subscription- $59 per month Coursera plus annual subscription- $399 per year. |
| Free Trial | 7-day free trial. |
| Refund Policy | 14 days. |
| Pros | High-quality content Flexible learning schedules Partnered with top educational institutions offline access to course materials, etc. |
| Cons | Coursera Plus is quite expensive Auditing course does not offer certificates. |
| Customer Rating | 4.5 |
Coursera is one of the most extensive and legitimate e-learning platforms offering a diverse pool of courses and other learning programs.
Coursera provides massive open online courses from top-notch universities to help you excel in different career-specific skills.
Coursera offers three types of programs as follows.
Paid Courses comprising study material, video lectures, assessments, quizzes, expert feedback, and a certificate of successful course completion.
Free Courses that you can access by auditing them but does not offer assessments or certificate.
Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from world-class universities.
More than 113 million learners and 7000 campuses, governments, and businesses have opted for Coursera to avail the world-class learning experience.
How Does Coursera Work?
Before opting for any e-learning platform, it is necessary to know exactly how it works.
To determine how Coursera works exactly, go through the below-provided information.
Ease Of Use
Coursera is a simple, quick, and easy-to-navigate website having a user-friendly interface that you can access easily.
The website’s home page comprises a dashboard consisting of all the essential tabs like the search option for different courses, online degrees, pricing options, etc.
Content Quality
The most important factor when considering an online learning platform is the quality of the content provided.
Coursera definitely provides quality content as it is partnered with top-most universities and provides content that is produced by certified experts.
Accessibility
Coursera offers good language support and helps you take up courses in different languages. It also offers subtitles in some languages and closed captioning in the native language.
An additional feature offered by Coursera is a transcription that is present below the video, which makes it more accessible to the learners.
Instructors
Since most of the Courses and different learning programs are offered by world-class universities, the courses are taught by experts from the respective universities.
Coursera offers the best teaching depth as compared to other e-learning platforms, and around 48 online courses are taught by Meta staff.
Certification
Coursera offers certificates on the successful completion of the course. However, you are required to pay the certificate fee to avail of them.
Once you pay for the course, you have a deadline of 180 days to complete them in order to earn a certificate; after that, your subscription expires, and you will have to repay for that course in order to get a certificate.
The deadline for the course may vary depending on the specializations. The certificates offered by Coursera are accredited and will definitely add value to your resume.
Free Trial.
Coursera provides a free trial period of 7 days on the Coursera plus subscription that helps you access the platform’s benefits for free before purchasing the subscription.
But, if you fail to cancel the trial before the end date, you will not be eligible for a refund and will be charged for the subscription.
Learning Programs Offered By Coursera
Coursera is a large pool of concrete courses offering more than 7000 courses and different learning programs.
Here is an overview of different learning programs offered by Coursera.
Degrees
Coursera offers more than 35 online bachelor’s and master’s degrees from world-class universities and institutions.
These degrees are legitimate, valuable, and fully verified, and you can earn these degrees at any time and from anywhere around the globe.
Duration: 1 to 6 years.
Price: The pricing of degrees starts at $6000 and above.
Specializations
Specialization programs comprise a series of courses to help learners acquire particular skills or gain in-depth knowledge of a particular field.
Currently, more than 1550 specialization courses are offered by Coursera, and many of these specializations comprise capstone projects that are based on real business challenges.
Duration: 1 to 12 months.
Price: The pricing of the specialization program is $39.99 and above.
Guided Projects
Coursera offers more than 2500 guided projects that are designed to help learners impart job-relevant skills and knowledge.
They are delivered online and offer an interactive learning experience, and have a main focus on topics relevant to Health, Business, Marketing, Data Science, etc.
Duration: 1 to 2 hours.
Price: The pricing is more than $9.99 per course.
Professional Certificates.
The professional certification and specialization programs are quite similar, as they both offer career-oriented courses to help learners gain job-ready skills.
More than 100 professional certification courses are offered by Coursera that provide hands-on projects, in-depth knowledge of that particular topic, and a certificate of competition.
Duration: 4 to 7 months.
Price: The pricing of the professional certification program is $39.99+ per month.
MasterTrack Certificates.
These are the rigorous programs comprising the study of a master’s degree in the curriculum in order to help students develop expertise in career-specific fields in a short time span.
The MasterTrack certification programs are flexible and easily accessible and offer verified certificates in diverse fields.
Duration: 4 to 7 months.
Price: The pricing, of course, is $2000 and above per course.
Features Of Coursera
Below are some of the exclusive features offered by Coursera.
- Provide the audit option to access the course materials free of charge.
- Unlimited access to the course content.
- Legitimate and fully-verified certificates.
- Flexible time and schedulable deadlines.
- Highly active customer support is available 24/7.
- Access to 1000+ first-hand projects and labs.
Pros And Cons Of Coursera
Let us have a quick look over the pros and cons of Coursera.
Pros Of Coursera
- A diverse range of features.
- Flexible time schedule
- Coursera has partnered with 200+ world-class universities and institutions offering high-quality courses.
- Offline access to the course materials.
- Massive course catalog with guided assignments.
Cons Of Coursera
- Few entry-level courses require prior knowledge of that particular subject.
- The pricing is confusing and a bit expensive for degrees compared to courses.
Who Is Coursera Best For?
Coursera offers different course types, such as normal courses, guided projects, specializations, professional certificates, MasterTrack certificates, and degrees. They offer plenty of affordable courses and learning programs for you to pursue. Instructors from top companies and industries teach the normal courses of Coursera. The guided projects are short courses that help you learn job-ready skills.
Specializations are a series of courses that is good for anyone who wants to master a particular skill to advance in their career. There are more than 790 specializations for you to choose from. Professional certificate courses help you prepare for a particular industry or job. These professional certificates are also recognizable at many companies and universities. A MasterTrack certificate helps you gain credit towards your degree.
Coursera Pricing Plan
Pricing is the essential aspect taken into consideration for the selection of an e-learning platform. Here is the complete pricing structure offered by Coursera and Coursera Plus.
Pricing Of Coursera
Coursera offers two ways of pricing for different courses and other learning programs, i.e., a single payment, one-off payments, and a subscription model.
The cost of courses for Coursera is between $49 to $79 if you purchase individual courses, and if you have a subscription to Coursera plus, then it will cost you around $32 to $59 per month.
Coursera Business Plan.
The Coursera business plan is the perfect option for business owners to purchase for their employees, and it comprises two plans.
Team plan.
The team plans of Coursera are mostly designed for small organizations or teams and offer over 5000 courses. The pricing of the team plan is $399 per user for every year.
Enterprise plan.
Coursera’s enterprise plan is mainly designed for larger companies and organizations that include all the features of the team plan with additional features like integration features, solution consulting services, etc.
The Coursera enterprise plan offers custom pricing.
Pricing Of Coursera Plus
Coursera plus offers three different pricing plans as follows.
Single learning program.
The price of the courses offered by the single learning program ranges between $49 to $79 based on the type of course.
Coursera Plus Monthly.
The Coursera Plus monthly subscription plan offers more than 7000 courses and other specialization programs that cost around $59 per month.
This plan also provides access to the 7-day free trial period.
Coursera Plus Annual.
The annual plan of Coursera Plus includes all the features of Coursera’s monthly plan and allows you to learn at your own pace. The Coursera annual plan is around $399 per year.
Coursera Refund Policy
Coursera has a refund policy of 14 days, i.e., it provides refunds within two weeks after the payment. However, it will be disapproved if you request to claim it after 14 days.
If you earn a certificate of completion even within the period of 14 days, you are not eligible to claim the refund.
No refund is offered for the Guided projects by Coursera.
Top Picks From Coursera
Below are some of the top picks from Coursera that may help you brush up on your skills and meet professional goals.
| Name Of Courses | Skills | Level | Ratings |
| Excel skills for Business Specialization. | Microsoft Excel, data validation, pivot table, Concatenation, etc. | Beginner | 4.9 |
| Meta Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate. | English Language, Entrepreneurship, Market Research, etc. | Beginner | 4.9 |
| AI for everyone. | AI terminology, AI strategy, Workflow of data science projects, etc. | Beginner | 4.8 |
| Python for Everybody Specialisation | Python syntax and semantics, data structure, tuple, basic programming language, etc. | Beginner | 4.8 |
| Google IT support professional certificate. | Linux, Debugging, Binary code, Domain name system, Troubleshooting, etc. | Beginner | 4.8 |
| English for Business and Entrepreneurship. | English Language, Entrepreneurship, Market research, etc. | Beginner | 4.8 |
| Digital Product Management Specialization. | Design thinking, lean startup, User experience design, software development, etc. | Beginner | 4.8 |
| Project Management Principles and Practices specialization. | Project management, risk management, Budget, change control, etc. | Beginner | 4.7 |
Tips For Finding Perfect Courses On Coursera
If you are finding it difficult to decide which course to opt for, here are a few tips that may help you to select one.
Make use of the filter feature.
In order to sort the courses as per their categories, make use of the filter feature, as it will make it easier to select the specific course from the massive catalog.
Read the description of the course.
Before opting for a particular course, it is necessary to read the ‘about this course section’ to get a complete insight into the course and the skills you will gain from that particular course.
Go through the reviews of the course.
All the courses available on Coursera have reviews and ratings provided by past learners and are helpful in deciding on a particular course.
Check the instructor of the course.
The course description of Coursera comprises the ratings of the instructor. You can check out their bio, websites, and social media handles to learn about their prior experience and other courses taught by them.
Audit the course or opt for a free trial before purchasing it.
Coursera offers an ‘audit the course’ option on the individual course pages that you can opt for to access the course contents for free before purchasing a subscription.
You can also go for a 7-day free trial option to see whether the course is the perfect suit for you before going for a subscription plan.
Coursera Alternatives
To determine different alternatives to Coursera, go through the below-provided information.
Pluralsight
Pluralsight is one of the major competitors of Coursera and is one of the leading e-learning platforms offering engaging and interactive content.
It comprises over 7000 courses and offers excellent courses based on data and digital transformation training.
Udemy
Udemy is one of the eminent competitors of Coursera, offering courses for both personal and professional development.
It offers around 213000 courses across 12 different categories and provides a certificate on successful completion of the Course.
Edx
Similar to Coursera, Edx is also partnered with top-notch universities and institutions and offers more than 3500 courses for a diverse range of subjects.
Edx also offers micro degree programs to help you promote professional growth and progress in your career.
Udacity
Udacity is partnered with the leading leaders of the industry, like Amazon; Google offers many courses like web development, programming, cyber security, artificial intelligence, business management, etc.
It also offers nano degrees of duration 3 to 4 months that help you to attain mastery over different skill sets.
Codecademy
It is one of the great competitors of Coursera and is mainly focused on offering courses for 14 different languages of coding.
Codecademy also offers free courses like Learn C++, Learn HTML, Learn JavaScript, Learn How to Code, etc., designed especially for beginners.
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Is Coursera Worth It?
After studying the platform thoroughly and taking into consideration all the aspects of Coursera, it is demonstrated that Coursera is the best suit for both individuals as well as enterprises.
For those who want to earn a degree but cannot attend a traditional college and for one who wants to impart additional skills and boost knowledge, courses from Coursera would be the perfect option for you.
Even though the pricing of Coursera may seem expensive for degrees, it is worth pursuing as they are offered by world-class universities.
I hope this article helped you to get a complete insight into the Coursera platform. What do you think is Coursera worth it?
Let us know your thoughts and queries in the comments section below.
FAQs On Coursera
Yes, Coursera is definitely a legitimate platform and is a global e-learning system partnered with world-class universities and institutions.
Yes, Coursera offers a refund within 14 days, i.e., Two weeks if you cancel your paid enrollment. Coursera does not offer refunds for Guided projects.
Yes, if you opt for a monthly subscription, Coursera offers a free trial period of about 7-days.
Yes, some of the courses on Coursera have deadlines that begin when you enroll for a particular course and make payment. It is necessary to complete that particular course within the deadline, or you will have to repay it to earn a certificate.
Yes, Coursera certificates are legitimate and can add value to your resume as they will showcase your skills and knowledge to future employers. You can add these certificates to the skills section of your resume.
